


Isn't That How You Say Goodbye?

by stanleyvris



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/F, elmax - Freeform, maxel, the party
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-29 08:18:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13923114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stanleyvris/pseuds/stanleyvris
Summary: Eleven isn’t fully aware of the social norms when it comes to saying goodbye, and ends up planting a kiss on a certain red-head skater rather than giving her a hug.





	Isn't That How You Say Goodbye?

The party was lounging around in Mike’s basement for the third day in a row. They had retreated to the coolness of the basement after a day of the summer heat beating down on their skin. Dustin and Lucas were sitting hunched over the table, working out what the next D&D campaign would involve. Mike and Will were sitting on the bottom two steps, leaning against the railing. They had been rifling through a box of cassettes for the last half hour, trying to find the perfect songs to play as the backing track to their dungeons and dragons game nights. El was seated in her blanket fort and was flicking through The BFG by Roald Dahl, her face scrunching up every time she came across an unfamiliar word. Max sat away from the rest of the group on the couch, her legs crossed and her skateboard resting on her lap. She was drumming on her skateboard subconsciously, zoned out completely to her surroundings, when a small voice broke through her daze.

“Max?” came a quiet voice. Max nearly jumped when she heard it, and turned to see who it came from. Her eyes landed on Eleven, who was peeking out from inside her blanket fort.

“Yeah?” replied Max.

“Can you come here please,” said El.

“Into the fort?” questioned Max. Eleven nodded and Max slowly put down her skateboard before walking across the room to the fort.

Max looked down at the fort, unsure as to how she could fit in beside Eleven, it was very small and would make for a tight fit if two people were to sit in it. Eleven shuffled to the side to make room for Max, who knelt down and crawled in beside her.

“What is it?” asked Max, pulling her knees to her chest and hugging her legs.

“What does this mean?” questioned Eleven, pointing at a spot on the page. Max followed the aim of Eleven’s finger and saw the word she was pointing at.

“Oh, you mean ecstasy,” said Max, “well… it’s basically when you’re feeling completely overjoyed”.

“Like really, really happy?” replied Eleven.

“Yeah, basically,” smiled Max. It wouldn’t seem like it but Max loved literature, and was always glad to help someone with words.

“Thanks Max,” said Eleven smiling back at Max.

The two sat in silence as Eleven began reading again, her eyes slowly scanning the pages. Max remained beside her, cooped up in the blanket fort. Slowly, their breathing fell into sync. A wave of calm fell over the two girls as they sat side by side, each lost in their own worlds. It didn’t take very long for Max to zone back out, and for Eleven to zone in on her book. The fort being small didn’t seem to be a problem anymore.

\--

It had been three days since Max had helped Eleven with her vocabulary. The party was getting back together for an evening in Mike’s basement. Max was greeted by Nancy, who was on her way out to see Jonathan.

“Hey Max,” said Nancy, smiling awkwardly at her.

“Hey Nancy. Are you staying for movie night?” asked Max. The previous movie night saw Jonathan, Steve and Nancy joining the party in the basement to watch along with them.

“Not today, I’m off to meet Jonathan at the park,” replied Nancy as she shrugged on her coat, squeezing out the door past Max. Max raised her hand and waved as Nancy walked away from the house.

Max stepped through the doorway and walked past the stairs and into the kitchen, where she found Lucas and Will popping popcorn and grabbing drinks.

“Hey, zoomers here!” called out Will.

“Hi Max,” said Lucas as he loaded his arms full of cans of soft drink.

“Hey guys,” smiled Max, propping her skateboard up against the wall.

“Everyone’s downstairs,” said Will, nodding his head towards the basement door.

“Need any help?” asked Max, gesturing to the stack of food the boys were trying to pick up.

“Nah, we’re good,” answered Lucas as he struggled to balance a bag of marshmallows on top of all the drinks. Max let out a giggle and shook her head as she turned away and opened the basement door. The light from the kitchen shone behind Max, creating a halo of light that surrounded her and illuminated her ginger hair. She quietly made her way downstairs to find Dustin and Mike setting up the movie.

“What’re we watching?” questioned Max as she hopped down the last step. Dustin raised his head and waved to greet her.

“Ghostbusters,” he grinned, holding up the movie case. Max let out a groan.

“We’ve watched that a million times,” sighed Max, rolling her eyes.

“That’s because it’s a good movie,” interrupted Mike. Max raised her arms as if to surrender, then made her way to the couch where she dropped down into the worn but comfortable cushions. She hadn’t realised it, but Eleven was peeking out of her blanket fort again, and had watched Max’s entrance and her interaction with the boys. El let out a small cough to show that she was there. Max’s eyes fell onto the girl with curly brown hair.

“Hi, El,” smiled Max, “how’s your book going?” she asked.

“Good, but some words are hard,” replied El as she pulled the book out from behind her. Max opened her mouth to say something when the door to the basement swung open and Will and Lucas came jumping downstairs, their arms filled with delicious delights. They walked over to the table and dropped everything on top of it. Both of them let out a sigh of relief as the strain of carrying everything was lifted.

“Ok movie night checklist: food, yep, movie, yep. We’re good to go,” announced Dustin. Will flicked off the lights and everyone moved closer to the TV. Max sat crossed legged on the couch, Dustin and Lucas settled onto their stomachs on the floor whilst Mike and Will sat down on a heap of blankets. After the movie had been going on for a few minutes, Max felt a dip to the side of her and turned to see Eleven sitting down on the couch. El gave Max a small smile, and Max returned the gesture.

Meanwhile, Mike had opened a can of coca cola and began to drink it. Dustin and Will had the bowl of popcorn wedged between them and were eating handfuls of it every minute. Eleven leant across and nudged Max.

“Watch this,” she whispered. El turned and stared at the can of drink in Mike’s hand. Max watched on silently. After a few seconds, the can began to rise slowly out of Mike’s grip, who was too engrossed in the movie to notice that his drink was now floating beside him. Max stifled a giggle as Mike sat there, oblivious to what Eleven was doing. Eleven lowered the can down beside Mike and turned to face Max.

“Cool,” whispered Max, grinning.

“One more,” said Eleven. She turned to focus her attention on the popcorn bowl that was beside Dustin and Will. Just like Mike’s drink, it slowly began to rise off from the ground. Dustin and Will managed to grab one handful before it rose above their heads. They both scoffed the popcorn and put their hands beside themselves to grab another handful, but were greeted with empty space. They groped at the air absentmindedly before realising the popcorn had moved. Will looked down to see it had disappeared, whilst Dustin looked up to see it floating beside his head. El nodded her head and the bowl fell down, spilling popcorn everywhere.

“Argh!” called out Will as popcorn rained down on him. Max and Eleven let out a howl of laughter. Mike and Lucas stared at the girls, confused as to why they were laughing so hard, the two boys had just missed the whole popcorn incident. Max and El’s laughter slowly died down, but once they glanced at each other, they broke out into muffled laughter again as El wiped a trickle of blood from under her nose.

\--

After what seemed like forever, the movie came to an end and Lucas turned the basement lights back on. The party had drained every can of drink and emptied every bowl of food.

“Alright, home time,” said Mike, clapping his hands together. Everyone felt a big groggy after staring at the screen for so long, and stumbled their way upstairs. Will was the first to leave as Jonathan had just dropped Nancy off, and was waiting for Will at the front.

“Bye,” called out Will as he ran to meet Jonathan.

“Bye!” said the party in unison, each one of them waving at Will’s retreating back.

“I’m walking home, see you guys later,” said Lucas before turning and walking off down the street. A few minutes later, Steve turned up and Dustin clambered into the passenger seat. Now it was only Mike, El and Max left.

“It’s late, I’m gonna go,” announced Max as she pulled her jacket on. She turned to go but felt a hand close around her wrist. When she turned to see who had grabbed her, she only caught a glimpse of Eleven’s curls before a kiss was planted on her cheek. Max’s breath hitched in her throat and she froze in place. Eleven stepped backwards and smiled at Max.

“Bye Max,” she said, waving.

“C-Cya,” stuttered Max. She turned and stumbled towards the road. From behind her, she heard Mike and Eleven talking.

“Oh, I get it,” said Mike.

“Get what?” Eleven inquired. Mike replied, but Max was already out of earshot. She wasn’t sure if her heart had stopped or gone into overdrive after what had just happened. Why had Eleven kissed her? Did El like her? Max had realised ages ago that the reason she was so interested in El was because she had a crush on her. Surely El wasn’t gay, she used to date Mike after all… but that had ended because of some unknown reason. 

Everything seemed to be going in slow motion as Max weaved her way through the streets. ‘I’ll just ask her tomorrow,’ she thought to herself.

\--

Early the next day, Max arrived at Hopper’s cabins in the woods. Her hands were shaking slightly as she knocked on the door. Instead of being greeted by the police chief, the door swung open and she saw Eleven standing there.

“Hi Max,” beamed El before reaching out and pulling the other girl into the cabin.

“Hey,” replied Max as she propped her board against a nearby chair.

“I’m so glad you came, I need help with my book again,” said El as she walked to the shelf and grabbed The BFG. “It’s hard, learning all these new words at once. But I’m getting there,” she continued.

Eleven settled down on the couch and Max sunk down beside her.

“See, this word here, re-ver-be-rated, that doesn’t sound like a word!” said Eleven, exasperated.

“El-,” interrupted Max. Eleven came to an abrupt halt and turned to look at Max.

“Yes?” she asked.

Max took in a deep breath before releasing a sigh, “Why did you kiss me yesterday?” she questioned. For a minute, Eleven just sat there, blinking at her. “Hello? Earth to El?” said Max, waving a hand in front of Eleven’s face.

“Isn’t that how you say goodbye to someone?” asked Eleven slowly, her face scrunched up in confusion. Max’s heart, which had been beating at 100mph before, slowed to a stop.

“Oh… uhm… if you’re dating someone. Then yeah, I guess,” replied Max, “but we’re not dating,” she mumbled. The two girls sat in silence, Max fiddling with the hem of her jacket and Eleven staring at the top of Max’s head.

“Oh, ok,” murmured Eleven, still totally unfazed about what she had done the day before.

Max had a hundred more questions she was burning to ask Eleven. But, how could she? What if it came out wrong? What if this friendship, that Max had worked so hard to curate, would be destroyed in an instant with the utterance of a word?

After what felt like an eternity of silence, Max let out another long sigh before raising her head to look Eleven in the eyes.

“I like you. Like, really like you. Like, how you liked Mike,” she stuttered. Max attempted to keep eye contact but she could feel her cheeks burning up and was forced to deflect her gaze.

“Like a girlfriend?” whispered Eleven. Max nodded and waited for the disgusted scoff or to be thrown out of the cabin. What she wasn’t expecting was a pair of shaking, but soft hands to grab hold of hers. Max practically melted at Eleven’s touch. “Max, look at me,” breathed Eleven. Max obeyed and raised her eyes to look at Eleven again.

“I’m sorry, I overstepped,” said Max, her voice cracking. She went to pull her hands away from Eleven but El only tightened her grip on them.

“I broke up with Mike because… because…” Eleven seemed to be struggling to say the words, “because I realised I liked someone else,” she finished.

“Who?” questioned Max slowly, but there was a feeling in her stomach that made her think she already knew the answer.

“You, Max,” answered Eleven, staring into the other girl’s sky-blue eyes. For the second time in two days, Max’s breath hitched in her throat.

“Really?” started Max, but before she could finish speaking, Eleven kissed Max’s cheek again. There was a pause before Max continued, "you missed."

“What do you mean?” asked Eleven, furrowing her brows and pulling her hands back.

“You missed,” repeated Max. Before Eleven could ask her to clarify, Max leant forward, closing the space between her and Eleven. Their lips met and a shiver of excitement shot through Max’s body. It was a clumsy but sweet kiss. For Max, Eleven tasted like candy. For Eleven, Max tasted like fresh strawberries. The two pulled apart, breathless from kissing. Eleven reached out and held onto Max’s hands again, rubbing her thumb in circles over Max’s palm.

“Now I’ll always get to kiss you goodbye,” said Eleven, beaming at Max.

“Yeah, I guess you will,” Max replied, smiling back at Eleven.

**Author's Note:**

> listen... clueless eleven is perfect for fics. I love elmax too much.


End file.
